I recently attended a Red Cross “Heroes Breakfast” with my uncle who was being honored for helping rescue a hiker in the Chugach State Park. Like most true heroes, he was reticent about being called a hero. I was proud of him; proud enough to attend an event full of people I would rarely encounter otherwise.

     Feeling slightly uncomfortable at his sponsoring table populated with cheery petrochemical employees, I reminded myself I was there to support my uncle’s moment of recognition and could live with a little discomfort.

     My unease grew though when sentimental nationalism flooded the room of 500+ as they stood to salute the small cadre of military personnel marching with the Alaska and United States flags in tow. Without question, right hands were placed over hearts to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, sing God Bless America and bow their heads while a Christian prayer was delivered. When Ms. Murkowski took the podium to greet everyone, I could only be thankful it wasn’t Ms. Murkowski, junior.

     The petrol employees were all smiles and good heartedness, and justifiably so. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and their local chapters do an amazing job each year. They are often the first aid organization on the scene of house fires, natural disasters and, more often than not, war. But I wondered, as all present sang, “stand beside her and guide her,” if their good intentions ever bumped up against the reality that their government was in the business of creating many of the victims they so willingly help.

     Take Iraq, for example. Two weeks ago I read the completely outlandish and, I believe, irresponsible headline in the Anchorage Daily News, “Ecstatic for Iraq”. (I noticed they’ve changed it for the Internet version.) The article brayed about a regiment of Stryker vehicles newly arrived from Fairbanks, a creepy sight I passed on my drive up there, being sent to Iraq and Alaska’s biggest Army deployment since Vietnam.

     An “ecstatic” soldier who was interviewed couldn’t wait to get to Iraq yet doesn’t want to offend Iraqis while he’s there. Uneducated, at best. But, in a war that was needlessly started and in which over 1,500 American and 100,000+ Iraqi people have been killed (carelessly used by a government who cares more for lining the pockets of their CEO friends than about any real security in this world), the Anchorage Daily News was silent. Maybe this is partly why this soldier is so naively enthusiastic about going to a country so dangerously repressive that the ICRC and their partner organization, the Iraqi Red Crescent, has adopted exceptional modus operandi, giving priority to those detained by occupation forces and foregoing excursions into much of the ravaged country deemed most dangerous in the world.

     In an article published last fall in Israel’s Al Hayat, ICRC Delegate-General for the Middle East and North Africa said, “The current violence in Iraq is having the effect of eroding respect for international humanitarian law.” There is no question who the responsible party is in that statement. While the resistance plays a significant role in the violence, the resistance is in direct response to Iraq’s occupation.

     The list of crimes against humanity committed by the US is unfortunately long and grows longer each day the occupation continues.

     Currently, a record 17,000 Iraqis are being held (most without being formally charged) in US-operated prisons where young soldiers like the one mentioned above are brainwashed into thinking their patriotic duty includes torture. These are the prisons so notorious in their abuses that the ICRC/Iraqi Red Crescent has made visits to them priority. Others run by Iraqi security forces are such a security risk that the ICRC has not even visited them. (Remember though, that many Iraqi government operations, like security, are still under US jurisdiction.)

     I’m certain the folks at the Red Cross Heroes Breakfast could not imagine responding to the type of crisis generated by prison abuse. Perhaps they could, however, imagine themselves responding to the type of humanitarian disaster that was Fallujah after its November siege. But what would be their reaction when they were denied access, as the Iraqi Red Crescent was for weeks by US forces? And how would they feel once they did gain access and found that the city’s hospital, which had been stormed by troops, patients handcuffed on the floor, and surgical procedures interrupted, was still occupied by the US military?

     In the midst of that Hero’s Breakfast I wanted to ask these questions. I have no doubt that every person there was deeply committed to helping others, but it’s time to broaden the net and not let the hypocrisy of this country’s nationalism cloud the good work intended. The ICRC, for obvious reasons, doesn’t take political stands, but it’s time that the people involved at the local levels do and become another kind of hero. If not for their own sake, then at least for the sake of young soldiers whose mistaken ecstasy about entering a war zone makes them a victim one of their sister chapters must respond to.

Karen Button is a freelance journalist and peace activist. She can be reached at kbutton@insurgent49.com